This is a short clip from last week when I had my last ski day of the season, ending it in a perfect manner skiing first tracks down Glacier Ronde on Aiguille du Midi in Chamonix, France.
Chamonix local Romuald Baudrier is the skier on this short clip. Read about the day and see some photos
here!
Morgan, Bjarne, Ale and myself (Photo: Ale Campos)
My girlfriend Alejandra does by no means have roots in the ski world. For her what we do is something magic and mystic ? and maybe she?s right! She recently wrote a blog post on hanging out with the Sahlén brothers and myself in the north of Norway in April.
The summer is here ?Norrland style? in Luleå. Today we had a great boulder session in the afternoon at Brändön. The snow was still covering the ground, but it was really warm in the sun! The climbing season is here to stay!
After two weeks of film work in Chamonix I?m once again back in Sweden. We had a great time in France and we got what we came for ? the last footage and audio material needed to finish our Salomon Freeski Tv episode. It was great working with Mike and Bjarne and I?m looking forward to the result coming sometime late autumn/early winter.
I felt sad leaving Cham as I got really motivated for the spring steep ski season. But I also think its good to sometimes draw back when the motivation is peaking to be able to direct that same force towards other objectives (both in the mountains and in life? I saw a few new lines for the future and I will definitely be back for longer next spring!
On Friday afternoon I went by Epic TV in Chamonix sud to be their first ever guest on their first ever show!
Epic TV is a new video-on-demand service for adventure films based in Chamonix. They will also produce a series of adventure sports video podcasts as well as host a monthly adventure film contest.
It?s an exiting project and I?m honored to be their first ever guest in the show!
The start of the first ever broadcast of Epic Tv
Things got more and more relaxed
We got freeride world champ Reine Barkered on the line
The house dog
The crew for the day - Hugo, Yan, myself and Trey
Yesterday morning I was really excited to go skiing, but my ski partner for the day called me while eating breakfast to tell me he was backing out.
Romu cruising the Ronde
I got really disappointed as I knew it was probably my last chance to go skiing for the season and I had a feeling it was going to be great up there. I went back to bed and slept for another two hours, but then I could just not stand it any more ? I had to get out there! My girlfriend Ale was also encouraging me to go out, as she could not stand me being frustrated for the rest of the day.
So I got back in to my ski clothes and walked over to Aiguille du Midi. It was really calm at the lift station and only one skier was waiting for the bin.
I had only met Romuald Baudrier a few times on town, and we where the only skiers there so we hooked up for todays venture.
Arriving at the top we where above the clouds, it was warm and the sun was shining and we had about 20 cm of fresh powder snow. We started skiing just outside of the ice cave on the north side of the arête, then turned down on the south side and continued to Glacier Ronde. There where no tracks from other skier on the whole mountain as far as we could see and it felt like a worthy way of ending a good season by dropping in on an untracked Ronde with no other skiers around.
The skiing was great and it was really fun to be out with Romu on the mountain. Everything went smooth, but I would not have liked to do the traverse back to the mid station much later. A lunch at Cambre 9 followed and now its time to return back to Scandinavia for a spring filled with climbing and guides courses?
The wonderful thing though is that I have enjoyed these two weeks in Cham immensely and I really miss the spring ski adventures here. I?m ready for a break from skiing after a great but long season but I?m already looking forward for some autumn adventures and the start of next winter!
Life is good when one can do lots of fun things and still have time to look forward for more coming!
A worthy way of ending the season
If you follow this blog you have probably seen some of the movies from my adventures. The man behind the camera is most of the time filmer Bjarne Sahlén!
Bjarne Sahlén (Photo: Mike Douglas)
Here is an interview with him on Swedish freeski site freeride.se ? Check it out
here! (Swedish only)
Yesterday Bjarne and me had a long day at work. On our quest to get the final material for the Salomon Freeski Tv episode we went up on Midi in the morning and did one Grand Envers in great snow. It had been snowing during night and we woke up to a beautiful day, but still not many people chose this side of the mountain as the Montenvers train are not running due to the hard winds last week.
We got what we came for on the three first pitches and after that the snow was just too heavy for shooting. Still enjoying the last part of the run we met up with Tom Grenall and Glen Plake at the bottom and then we took the ladders up to Montenvers, continued on skis down to the James Bond trail and then followed a thirty minute walk down to town.
After an easy lunch we went up to Grand Montets to wait for the night. It was a long and cold evening, but when night came we got exactly the night shots we needed to finish of this week of filming. We where actually extremely lucky that we got this last day of perfect conditions as Bjarne had to go home today. Now the rest of the work is on Mike Douglas and the crew at Salomon Freeski Tv, it?s going to be really fun to see the result!
Intonation workout
Aiguille du Midi
Bjarne at work
My tracks with Midi in the backdrop
Bjarne in ski action
Mt Blanc du Tacul
Bjarne skiing on the second pitch
Good old memories
Glen Plake and Bjarne on the ladders
Tom, Glen and Bjarne
Myself at Montenvers
Bjarne doing some spring skiing
Myself reading the newspaper on Grand Montets at 7 pm... I like technology at occasions like this
Bjarne at sunset
Cham at night
Bjarne in the dark
Inga kommentarer
